Bill Clinton

William Jefferson ‘Bill’ Clinton was born on the 19th of August 1946, the 42nd President of the United States who served from 1993 to 2001. Clinton has been described as a New Democrat. Many of his policies have been attributed to a centrist Third Way philosophy of governance.

 

Before becoming president, he was the Governor of Arkansas for five two-year terms, serving from 1979 to 1981 and from 1983 to 1992. He was also the state’s Attorney General from 1977 to 1979.

 

Bill attended St. John’s Catholic Elementary School, Ramble Elementary School, and Hot Springs High School where he was an active student leader, avid reader, and musician.

 

He was born William Jefferson Blythe III, but got his step-fathers surname later in his life in his teenage years. His biological father, William Jefferson Blythe died in a car accident, three months before Clinton was born.

 

Clinton attended the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., receiving a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service (B.S.) degree in 1968.

 

In 1964 and 1965 he won elections for class president. While at Oxford he also participated in Vietnam War protests and organized an October 1969 Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam event. Clinton attended Yale Law School and earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in 1973.

 

In a Yale library in 1971 he met fellow law student Hillary Rodham, who was a year ahead of him. They began dating and soon were inseparable.

 

After only about a month, Clinton postponed his plans to be a coordinator for the George McGovern campaign for the 1972 United States presidential election in order to move in with her in California. They married on October 11, 1975, and their only child, Chelsea, was born on February 27, 1980.

 

After a tough primary campaign, Bill Clinton won his party’s nomination and went on to defeat Republican President George Bush, and independent candidate Ross Perot in the 1992 presidential race.

 

When President Clinton won re-election in 1996, he became the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second term.  In 1998, as a result of issues surrounding personal indiscretions with a young woman White House intern, Clinton was the second U.S. president to be impeached by the House of Representatives.

 

He was tried in the Senate and found not guilty of the charges brought against him. He apologized to the nation for his actions and continued to have unprecedented popular approval ratings for his job as president.

 

In the years since leaving office, President Clinton has dedicated his time to leading the development of global initiatives through his Foundation. The staff and volunteers of the William J. Clinton Foundation focus on programs of community service, drug acquisition for HIV/AIDS treatment, and fighting childhood obesity in the United States.

 

Clinton has kept busy since leaving office writing books and giving speeches. He also worked with Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush in relief efforts for victims of major natural disasters including Hurricane Katrina, the Asian Tsunami, and the earthquake in Haiti. In 2008 he worked with his wife Hillary in her bid to become president.

LEAVE A COMMENT

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.